Wednesday, August 19, 1998 Last modified at 12:43 a.m. on Wednesday, August 19, 1998

Suit accuses Udall of discrimination

SANTA FE (AP) - A former state prosecutor has sued Attorney General Tom Udall, charging she was fired for complaining about alleged sexual discrimination in his office.

Barbara Mulvaney, now in private practice here, had no comment Monday on the lawsuit, in which she is representing herself.

Her lawsuit claims she lost wages and suffered professional humiliation and emotional distress. It names Udall, Deputy Attorney General Manuel Tijerina and the attorney general's office as defendants.

Udall could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

But Tijerina said: "We categorically deny she was in any way discriminated against or harassed."

After numerous complaints from female employees, Udall and Tijerina brought in an outside investigator in 1995 to look into charges of sexual harassment and discrimination, the lawsuit says.

Mulvaney said in the lawsuit she believes the investigator found a hostile work environment, but Tijerina said Monday the investigator - a lawyer from the Texas attorney general's office - "reported to us that she couldn't find any discrimination based on race or gender."

Mulvaney's lawsuit contends she was dismissed "because she reported and complained of sexual discrimination in the attorney general's office."

Although Mulvaney was involved in drafting the procedure for dealing with complaints within the office, Tijerina said she never filed one for herself.

"I can't understand, if she felt she was discriminated against, why she wasn't filing the complaints or whatever," he said.

The lawsuit says Mulvaney complained about her working relationship with investigators and Tijerina. She alleges Tijerina summoned her to his office, confronted her and acted as final arbiter of claims she raised against him.

Tijerina said Udall, the Democratic nominee for U.S. representative in the 3rd Congressional District, has hired women at all levels of his administration and made sure early in his tenure that women were paid the same as men for similar work.

"I think no attorney general in the history of the office has done more for women than Tom," he said.

Tijerina also disputed Mulvaney's contention she was fired in December 1996.

"The general response is that she wasn't fired," he said. "She stormed out of the office after a meeting with the attorney general and me about her management shortcomings."

She filed a complaint last September with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which gave her permission to sue on her claim in May, the lawsuit said.